Angela Brady
A London Irish Story as told to Anna Johnston
Over Zoom, I had the most wonderful chat with Angela Brady. Sitting in her home with beautiful artwork behind her- that she created, Angela told me her London Irish Story.
“I was born and bred in Blackrock, Co Dublin, and went to school in Holy Child Killiney, which was in the most beautiful location by the sea. My art teacher there was a great inspiration, I was always into arts and crafts and that led me in the direction of architecture. It was all about design for me. I wasn’t sure if I’d get the academic points to do architecture, but I applied to do Architecture in Bolton Street (DIT), as they also considered your art portfolio plus interview for entry.
When I left DIT, I went to Copenhagen for 18 months to study co housing and spent six months working in an architect's office in Toronto. I came to London in 1983 as there were no jobs in Dublin and in the construction industry every ten years there is a recession. I was still in contact with my pals who moved to London, so I decided to sofa surf and give London a try. I gave myself 10 days with £100 to find a job, or else I was going back to Dublin. I was offered three jobs on the spot here which I think is a testament to Irish education, plus there was a shortage of architects. Hey, it was my lucky week!
I've been a campaigner all my professional life. When I first came to London our architecture degree from DIT was not recognised by the Architects Registration Board. To combat this, we formed the group called Irish Architectural Graduates Overseas. It took a couple of years to resolve but we finally got due recognition. We became a strong Irish networking group holding an annual architects exhibition in London. Renamed RIAI London Forum and our group is still going strong 35 years later.
“When I started working in London, I found out that women were paid less then men and had fewer career opportunities.”
I believe in diversity and equality. We set up a group called ‘Architects for Change’ in 2000 to tackle this inequality with a positive message. We brought together all the marginalised groups of architects from diverse backgrounds to give them a voice; women, black and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT+ community. I chaired the Women in Architecture group for five years from 2000. During that time, I curated the DiverseCity exhibition with 50 diverse architects showcasing their work with a message stating what needs to change and what diversity means to them. This exhibition travelled to 34 cities around the world over 6 years and became the ‘Global Snowball’ gathering voices and panels from each city we visited -the RIBA’s furthest reaching exhibition to date.
Being an activist and design champion, I was elected president of RIBA, (Royal Institute of British Architects 2011-2013). I was the first non-British passport holder and the second woman to the post. I was elected on promoting diversity, equality and representing SME’s- small practices and internationalising the RIBA - the things that were lacking. For my group efforts I've received a few personal achievement awards, the two top ones for me are the Irish President's Distinguished Service Award and an OBE, in 2016, which Prince Charles handed to me. Both were for services to architecture, design, and education.
As president of RIBA during the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic games, I alongside the London Architecture Centre, and the Institution of Structural Engineers helped spearhead a campaign called Drop the Ban. We wanted to end the ban on publicity for the architects, engineers and teams who designed the London 2012 sports buildings, who were not allowed to promote their own projects unless they were sponsors. Peter Murray OBE from the NLA had a protest T-shirt listing all of the architects, engineers, landscapers - “These are the designers of the London 2012 Olympics” so I decided to make up a ‘protest dress’ with these names, plus images of their buildings. My daughter and I applied the images via iron- on photographs. The 10 o’clock news covered our protest outside the RIBA where we rolled out a 6 meter long banner from my presidential office window on second floor, asking the government to give due recognition to these designers and allow them to showcase their work. Eventually the ban was dropped.
“Then later at a talk I gave, as soon as I mentioned my dress, I was invited to donate it to the Protest Fashion section of the Museum of London.
I was delighted to do so!”
Working in London is fun and we have a great Irish network. I am a director of a busy small practice Brady Mallalieu architects with my husband Robin Mallalieu, celebrating 30 years in practice and we have many Irish developer housing clients like the Murphy Group and Ballymore and we have built many award winning projects mainly in London and we work with communities too.
I think as an architect you've got to be able to talk to everybody from all walks of life to do your job properly. Communication skills are really important in architecture and particularly doing community research for end users of a project. You must ask people what they want? and not presume you know the answer. I think that if you can learn to communicate with everybody, then you're going to have a more successful project, a better building, and ultimately a better result for all.
“My side hustle for the past 15 years and to keep my artistic side alive, is making fused glass artworks.”
It’s a new skill and a great way of meeting a wide range of people at evening classes and doing something not in your immediate field of work. I come from an artistic family so I have been creative most of my life and our two children are the same. I also like working with like-minded creatives, so I curate the ‘10 Hands Crafts’ group - to promote Irish Craft and Design. I think that when you have a group of artists working together it’s more interesting and fun and you learn from each other too.
As a promoter of Irish Design, TV is a great medium and I have made 3 TV series so far. Together with my friend Sandra O’Connell we wrote and presented a 4 part TV series called ‘Designing Ireland’. It covers Irish architecture, design, craft, and furniture design. It was such a lovely TV series to make with RTE and it’s now streaming worldwide on Amazon Prime.
“It was such a lovely TV series to make with RTE and it’s now streaming worldwide on Amazon Prime.”
As an Irish woman architect in London, I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had here and London has been very kind to me. We have also added some value with our built projects too. I would consider both Dublin and London to be my home, as I am at home in both places.
Learn more about Angela’s Architecture practice, check out www.bradymallalieu.com
See more of Angela Brady’s artwork here: www.angelabradydesigns.com
